


What We Overheard

by Defiler_Wyrm



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Bottom Bucky Barnes, M/M, Mentions of Historical Racism, Period-Typical Homophobia, Secret Relationship, Top Steve Rogers, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:20:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23690740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Defiler_Wyrm/pseuds/Defiler_Wyrm
Summary: Dum Dum overhears some strange noises in the night, and all Hell breaks loose. The Howling Commandos have an ethical crisis on their hands.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 50
Kudos: 464





	What We Overheard

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to cloudycelebrations for beta reading this! 💜

The Howling Commandos were a unit of legendary camaraderie. Built as they were from a real-life superhuman, his lifelong best friend, and men he'd personally saved after they kept each other alive in captivity, they couldn't be anything but.

None of them had any illusions about who the captain's favorite was, though. Rogers and Barnes couldn't be any closer if they were stitched together at the flank. Owing to that, none of the rest of them thought twice about the fact that they shared a tent--and, apparently, a room in their sparse pockets of leave.

If they tended to stare at each other any time they had a second to spare for it, well, Dum Dum just chalked it up to what close pals they were. He stubbornly refused to consider any alternative, even when he caught them looking kinda gushy or huddling closer than was strictly appropriate when they thought no one else could see.

One or both of those two usually took first watch; sometimes second, too. One rare night when Dum Dum had first watch instead, something on the wind got his hackles up.

It was a sound, a tiny sound like boots in water, or someone getting lightly slapped in the face. At first he tried to put it out of mind, like he was hearing things. But there it was again, along with a quiet grunt and a hiss.

Those were human noises. Unfolding from his post, he crept through the undergrowth of the ancient forest they'd made camp in towards the source. It came and went; he froze when it stopped, heart hammering and ears strained, until it started again and he followed further.

The sound led him back to camp. Their fire was nothing more than embers, not enough to see by, but what little moonlight reached down through the canopy showed no human figures in the dark. Onward he followed, one careful step at a time, until finally he realized where he stood: right in front of the Barnes-Rogers tent.

This close he could hear them breathing. The trouble was, it wasn't snoring--it was  _ panting _ . Both men heaving for breath. The flap was still closed, there were no signs of struggle, so Dum Dum's mental gears were grinding trying to think of why they'd sound like they were running for their lives. And then, so quiet he questioned whether he heard it at all:

"Ohh, God, Steve, yes."

It took just a moment more and then Dum Dum's reaction hit all at once: his face burned and his stomach did flips. Barely thinking beyond  _ WHAT the FUCK, _ he hustled to the other tents to whisper-hiss the other men awake.

Once he had them all up and hushed, he whispered urgently, "Come listen to this and tell me I'm crazy. Whatever you hear,  _ don't. Make. A sound. _ "

Wary, the others followed. They didn't have to listen long before they heard their leaders' voices again, Barnes first.

"Fuck, it's so big…."

"All for you, honey."

The five of them recoiled. Each man turned a varying shade of red, save Gabe whose face went fairly purple. They grabbed each other's sleeves to hustle off to the other end of camp.

"Tell me I'm crazy," Dum Dum hissed. "Tell me that's not what I think it is."

"I think you know  _ exactly _ what that is," Jones murmured.

"Are they insane?" Morita said. "They'll be court martialed at best!"

Falsworth shook his head incredulously. "I don't believe it. I cannot believe that  _ Captain Rogers _ of all people--"

"I gotta say, Barnes isn't a surprise," Morita muttered.

"Fuck me. Sarge always talked about having a hot-headed blonde waiting for him back home. He meant…." Dum Dum bent over. "I'm gonna be sick."

Frenchie said something chiding in French. Jones translated, tone flat: "He says we're overreacting and should give them their privacy if they wanna... _ make love. _ "

"It's  _ unnatural _ ," Falsworth spat. "Two men…."

Silence draped over them. Falsworth began to pace. Dum Dum took deep, slow breaths. Frenchie yawned.

Finally Morita spoke up again, still quiet as death. "So...what now? What are we gonna do? Whatever it is, we need to be in agreement."

Falsworth groaned as quietly as he could. "This would  _ destroy _ the Allies' morale if it got out."

Dum Dum cussed. "It's  _ illegal _ ," he pointed out, reasonably, he felt. "They're over there breaking the damn law as we speak."

Jones got a Look about him. "You know what else is illegal? Most of my family voting."

Dum Dum and Morita winced. Falsworth squinted and said, "Aren't they of age?"

He got a grim look back. "It's not their age that's the problem, it's their complexion. Same reason Morita and I technically shouldn't be allowed in this unit with the rest of you. Laws aren't always right."

And well, shit, none of them could really argue with that.

"I'm just...still having trouble wrapping my head around this," Falsworth said, rubbing his eyes with a thumb and two fingers. "I've known a nance or two; I'd never expect one of their kind to be so…."

"Héroïque?" Frenchie offered blandly.

"I suppose."

Morita's mouth twisted. "You know who  _ really _ hates fairies?" Dum Dum held his tongue. "Nazis."

Fuck, none of them could argue with that, either.

Dum Dum looked around at the others. "You're really okay with this?"

"I'm not," Falsworth snapped, "but even I have to admit we must look at the bigger picture. Captain Rogers is more than a commanding officer. He's a symbol. A rallying cry."

"And he gets results where no one else would bother trying," Jones said.

"Exactly. Exposing them would see us all scattered back to our regular units and, again, morale  _ demolished _ among the troops."

"Sarge kept us alive and sane in a Nazi hellhole while he was damn near dying himself, and Cap defied orders to break us out of there alone," Gabe pointed out. "And he asked for Morita and me by name. That counts for something. I don't care if they're fucking, I'm following them."

"Me too," Morita whispered.

"Et moi, bien sûr." Dernier wasn't a surprise. Dum Dum had heard about the French people's exotic ideas of love and sex long before he ever set foot in Europe.

"Guess the writing's on the wall," he muttered. "Fine. We're all agreed then, we'll keep mum. But I don't gotta like it."

Frenchie said something that made Gabe clap a hand over his own mouth. Dum Dum decided he didn't want to know.

"Alright. Fuck. Gabe, you're up for watch. Let's get our asses back to bed, assuming anyone can get any sleep with  _ that _ going on."

"We've probably been sleeping through that for a while now," Morita pointed out unhelpfully.

Dum Dum shuddered and didn't look back. "I'll give you my last cigarette to never put that idea in my head again."

"Deal."

* * *

The next morning was uncomfortable to say the least. The Howlies all found themselves sneaking glances at their CO and NCO. Had the signs been there all along? Was Cap always so perky in the morning? Did Barnes always look like he hadn't slept but had fun anyway? Did they always spend so many moments just looking at each other, bodies aligned to each other like flowers reaching for the sun?

In retrospect, Dum Dum felt up to his nickname for not seeing it sooner. Those two loved each other ferociously. If one of them had been a woman, it would have been as plain as the noses on their faces.

It still grossed him out though.

For largely covert operatives, none of them did a halfway decent job of concealing their own feelings that morning, and their leaders were quick to pick up on it. Barnes got squinty; Cap got stony.

Finally Barnes snarled at them, "One'a youse gonna fuckin' spit it out already or we gotta hold an impromptu tribunal? The fuck's with you, all'a you?"

The Howlies all stared at their breakfasts and muttered variations of "nothing."

"Bullshit," Cap said. Ah shit, he was wearing his patented Captain America is Disappointed In You face, and they all squirmed under it. "Something's up here and I wanna know what it is."

It seemed none of them wanted to be the one to speak up, until Frenchie did, and of course it wasn't in English, but Cap went stock-still and white as a sheet anyway. So hey, at least one of them was learning.

"What was that," Cap said flatly.

Gabe hesitated a moment before saying, "He said, we heard you last night."

Now Barnes went ghost-pale too. "Excuse me?"

There was an awful lot of avoiding eye contact going on. Dernier made a crude, illustrative gesture with his hands and said something Dum Dum didn't need translated.

Moments stretched by in silence. When Cap spoke next, it was in a calm, firm manner that frankly made Dum Dum's blood run cold. "Do any of you want to send a message to my commanding officer? Because if you do, I have only one request: leave Bucky out of it."

Barnes jolted out of his scared-stiff state to wheel on Cap as only he could. "Don't you fuckin' dare throw yourself on the sword for me, Steve! If you go down, I go down!"

Cap started before he even finished: "I'm not gonna see you ruined on my behalf--"

And now they were near-shouting over each other. "They're not gonna just send you home--"

"--I got you into this--"

" _ You _ got  _ me _ into this?! I  _ chose _ this, I chose  _ you _ and they'll  _ hang _ you, Steve--"

"Then so be it but I haven't come this far just to let them hang you too--"

"We're not turning you in," Gabe cut in, pitching his voice above the quarreling lovers. It took them a moment but they clammed up and stared at him, dumbfounded and wary.

"We're not turning you in," he repeated more quietly. "Your secret's safe with us."

Cap looked...fragile, Barnes withdrawn. The sight was jarring. "We know it's illegal," Cap admitted, "but the law is wrong."

"That's pretty much the conclusion we came to last night," Dum Dum said, feeling complicated about it.

Cap reached out to put an arm around Barnes and pulled him close. Sarge, for his part, looked like a cat dropped into a bathtub for a moment there, but settled into Cap's side just like a dame would, like he belonged there.

"We're out here fighting for more than armies or countries," Cap said. "Our enemy isn't Germany, it's Nazism. It's the idea that being different makes you lesser-than and being lesser-than means your life is forfeit. That's exactly why I picked the men I did for this unit, because I know the truth: difference gives us perspective, and sharing those perspectives gives us strength. Anyone can get along with someone just like them but a wise man can see everyone's got something in common with someone else. I chose you all because I  _ wanted _ those different perspectives, and because I believed you're all fundamentally good people." He smiled, and that was a damn relief. "Thank you for proving me right."

Barnes sniffed. "I ain't got a speech, I'm just a pogue who fights like a demon come to drag Hitler to Hell. Thanks for, y'know, not sending me there first."

The Howlies gave their leaders a casual salute, and the tension lifted off their unit like scattering fog.

Dum Dum couldn't resist adding in, "Just...keep it down, for fuck's sake, please."

Sarge gave him an arch look. "He's been working me over five nights a week since the rescue mission and it's taken you this long to find out. I think we're good."

Cap turned beet red and muttered a reproachful, " _ Bucky, _ " while the others laughed, perhaps a bit nervously.

"That's it, I'm transferring to the Navy." Dum Dum got up to deal with his mess kit. As laughter followed him, he waited till he was out of line of sight to let himself smile, just a little.

_ end. _


End file.
